Family Reunion
by Secret-Leadership
Summary: Sally-Anne Perks grew up hearing the tales of the mysterious murder of her great-grandfather Tom Riddle and his parents, Thomas and Mary Riddle and at Hogwarts, she had heard of Voldemort who had waged war against muggleborns like her. Now that Voldemort was back; she wished for a family reunion.


Sally-Anne Perks, a fourth year Hufflepuff was distraught over Cedric Diggory's death though to be honest, her four years at Hogwarts were quite troublesome to say the least. In the first year, she nearly died from tripping from a moving staircase, in the second year a monster that petrified her and the other muggleborns and in the third year, a mass-murderer who was supposedly You-Know-Who's right hand man escaped from Azkaban which led to the castle being guarded by soul-sucking fiends, hence although Cedric's death had greatly upset her, she was not surprised. If it were a muggle school, Hogwarts would have been shut down a long time ago. Coming to Hogwarts, the wizarding world seemed to have a peculiar fascination with pigs. With a village, pub and a school whose name literally means "swine-pimples", Magical Britiain was quite strange.

She remembered the time when she got her Hogwarts letter, when her grandmother asked McGonagall about ways of killing someone without leaving any traces and ways in which someone can be robbed of their free-will.

_"You see, Mrs. McGonagall when I was an eight year old, my father and my paternal grandparents were murdered in cold blood. The curious thing was that according to the coroner, there was nothing that could have caused them to die without any apparent cause. So tell me, is this magic?" , Mary Perks asked McGonagall to seek closure for her family's mysterious deaths that she somehow knew was murder. _

_"I am sorry to hear about your family, Mrs. Perks. There is the Killing Curse that would kill a person without leaving any non-magical trace at all and judging from your description, your family seemed to have been struck down by the said curse. The Killing Curse is an unforgivable curse that is punishable by a lifetime imprisonment in Azkaban, the wizarding gaol.", McGonagall answered._

_Cecilia Riddle, her great-grandmother, then asked if it is possible to make someone fall in love with magic. McGonagall replied that there are potions and spells that can do it, though it is somewhat frowned upon in the wizarding world._

_"Your world is dystopic, Mrs. McGonagall. My daughter will be better off in the normal world.", her father, Timothy Perks answered. _

_"Be that as it may, it is mandatory for muggleborn wizards and witches to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and if the said muggleborn is being coerced to not attend Hogwarts, then the aforesaid muggleborn would be taken into custody by the Ministry of Magic and the guardians' memories of their ward shall be erased." , McGonagall answered primly._

_The Perks were caught between the devil and the deep-sea. The magical world was quite backward, but if they didn't allow Sally-Anne to be a part of it, then they would just kidnap her. Even the Huns did not stoop so low. They reluctantly allowed her to go to Hogwarts. _

_Sally-Anne faced quite some harassment in Hogwarts due to Muggle origins, especially from the blonde ponce, Malfoy and she had told her parents about these threats, they thought it best to withdraw her from Hogwarts, though she did not want to be taken away from her family, and after several days of arguement, they allowed her to continue at Hogwarts._

Now, this was the day, she was turning fifteen. She was quite excited about her birthday party and she had invited her family and friends from her neighbourhood and Hogwarts to it. She was almost certain that Wizarding Britain was on the brink of war and some partying would help lighten the mood for given the condition of Wizarding Britain, it might very well be her last birthday.

It was ten in the morning, a full five hours before the party when a man clad in black hood knocked on the door and Sally-Anne rushed to the door. He was quite frail in appearance with a face whiter than a skull, wide livid scarlet eyes that somehow reminded Sally of the Gryffindor house, a nose that was as flat as a snake but with slits for nostrils. His hands were long and bony and were the same hue as chalk . He seemed to emanate an aura of quiet menace. In short, Sally-Anne felt uneasy around the stranger.

"Who are you?" , Gertrude Perks, her mother, asked.

"Tom Riddle, I believe that you are Mrs. Perks" , the stranger answered, his voice high and cold.

"Yes, I am. Come in, let us have tea." , her mother invited Tom Riddle within the house.

"Would you have it with or without sugar?", Gertrude Perks asked.

"With sugar", Riddle answered.

"I couldn't help but notice that you share a name with my father." , Mary Perks commented.

"I believe that we have some family connections." ,Riddle replied politely.

"My father, grandfather and my grandfather's father were all named Thomas Riddle, Viscounts of Little Hangleton.", Mrs. Perks told her half-brother about her family lineage and his scarlet eyes shone with anticipation. He was obviously ill. She would recommend a nice plastic surgeon to him.

Sally, on the other hand thought that she might have seen Tom Riddle in a history book, though she couldn't recollect anything more about Tom Riddle. Since Voldemort returned, she often carried a wand with her and having met this Tom Riddle, who is surely a wizard, she went to her room and fetched her wand.

" My parents were Thomas and Merope Riddle of Little Hangleton. They married in 1925 and I was born on 31st December, 1926. I grew up in a London orphanage starved, abused and lonely during the Great Depression and had entirely given up hope when a letter from Hogwarts arrived. It was then, I realised that I am a wizard." , Tom Riddle concluded, flashing a serpentine grin.

"Oh, so it was your mother who doped my father. Anyways, you are not responsible for what your mother did to our father." , Mrs. Perks walked upto her orphaned half-brother and hugged him. Her son and daughter-in-law was excited to meet a new relative and Sally-Anne squealed, "Yay! I am not the only witch in the family."

Meanwhile, Tom Riddle sat sipping tea

"At Hogwarts, I quickly mastered magic and had in short time became the greatest sorcerer of all time. It was in my sixteenth year of my life that I met my father and grandparents.", Riddle continued, dipping a biscuit in his tea.

"Naturally, being the filthy muggles that they are, my father abandoned my mother and I had exacted vengeance upon them, being the last surviving descendant of Salazar Slytherin.", Tom finished his tale.

"YOU MURDERED MY FAMILY!" , Mary snarled.

Tom whispered the killing curse and massacred the Perks leaving Sally-Anne as the sole survivor.

Sally-Anne collapsed on the ground sobbing. "What h-h-have we ever done to you?", she asked. Within a single day, her birthday, her entire family was destroyed by a lunatic magical relative. She wanted nothing more than death.

"Being the heir of Slytherin, I had decided to prune my family tree to get rid of undesirable contaminants. It was I who opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago, and it was my diary that opened it two years ago." , Tom hissed out.

"So if you claim to be the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come nobody's ever heard of you, you filthy Death-Eater?" , Sally-Anne snarled.

"Of course, I have fashioned my self a new name, a name that the Wizarding World has learnt to fear. Secondly, I am not a Death Eater and nor do I have the dark mark. Thirdly, I am rather appalled that your knowledge of magical history is so lacking that you couldn't recognize me. See that's the problem with mudbloods like you. You are an oddity, a freak of nature, a mutant so to speak for you did not inherit magic lawfully and you drag in muggle customs in our world without bothering to bow to your superiors. In fact -"

"YOU'RE A HALF BLOOD!", Sally-Anne yelled at him.

_"Crucio!", _Riddle hissed and Sally-Anne was overcome by pain of the worst sort imaginable . It was like having all your bones boiled by tar which seemingly replaced blood in her vessels. She screamed for a minute, convulsing on the floor in sheer agony and after five minutes of hell, Riddle picked up her wand, snapped it and lifted the curse.

"In fact mudbloods like you should be killed when you are still in the cradle. You have no place in the magical world. Now, look here girl for I will reveal my true name to you." , Riddle hissed softly to Sally-Anne who was still lying on the floor.

Riddle took out his wand and wrote his name in yellow flames.

_TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE _

He flicked his wand and the letters rearranged.

_I AM LORD VOLDEMORT _

Sally-Anne spluttered, " I'll t-t-tell Madam Bones". Right now she was too shocked. Her entire family murdered before her eyes by her newly discovered great-uncle who turned out to be Voldemort. It was too much for a person to bear. Voldemort struck her with another Cruciatus.

"For the love of God, just kill me!", Sally-Anne pleaded.

" Being a merciful lord, I will oblige your request, but not now." , Voldemort purred.

Sally-Anne was truly frightened. She had already suffered under the Cruciatus twice and she would gladly give up her right arm if it meant to never suffer that curse again. Voldemort knelt next to her and whispered, _"Sensitivio Privatio"_

The whole world turned black and silent. She could not see, hear or smell anything nor could she feel anything. The spell had destroyed her five senses and she knew nothing about the external world save Voldemort still cruciated her (that she knew from her pain receptors). Her life flashed before her eyes, her birthdays, the Hogwarts letter, sneaking around the corridors, detentions , the Yule Ball dance with Ernie McMillan and finally the brutal murders of her family before the Cruciatus had thoroughly scrambled up her brain circuitry.

**Five hours later**

Ernie McMillan bought a sneakoscope and a Geiger counter ( his father worked as an Auror under Alastor Moody and Moody was paranoid about everything including radioactive poisoning) for his girlfriend and he arrived at her home. He was surprised when he saw that the door was already open and he walked in to see Sally-Anne lying catatonic near a snapped wand while the rest of her family was dead. The room was illuminated by an emerald green dark mark that floated in the air.

"Sally", he called out to her. No response.

"Sally-Anne, please wake up. Are you okay?" , Ernie cried out and Sally-Anne lay comatose, blank eyes staring at the ceiling.

Ernie was now truly was the Dark Mark floating in the air and almost everybody was dead. It seemed that Death Eaters had tortured Sally-Anne to insanity.

"Oh, Sally. I am very sorry. I should have come earlier and saved you. I swear by Merlin that I will avenge you.", Ernie muttered and sobbed uncontrollably.

A few minutes later, Susan arrived with her aunt Amelia who was the head of the DMLE. Susan fainted on seeing the mess and Amelia Bones went up to Ernie.

"Now, Ernie. Can you tell me what happened?", the head of DMLE asked McMillan.

" I came here and I saw the Dark Mark. I saw Mr and Mrs. Perks and Sally's grandmother lying dead. Sally was alive but those Death-Eater bastards had tortured her." , Ernie told her in a voice devoid of emotion.

"May I check your wand?" , Madam Bones asked and Ernie handed it over to her who then checked.

Madam Bones then checked the bodies and concluded that they were killed by the Avada Kedavra curse and brief inspection suggested that Sally-Anne had been tortured into insanity by the Cruciatus. Ernie felt sick and voided his stomach on the floor. Madam Bones vanished the vomit and took Sally-Anne to Janus Thickey Ward in St. Mungos.

Susan Bones regained consciousness and asked Ernie, " Please tell me that it is only a nightmare. Sally-Anne couldn't be dead."

Ernie replied, " Those bastards have tortured her thoroughly. Your Aunt took Sally-Anne to St. Mungos for cruciatus exposure. I think that it is You-Know-Who. Only he can be sick enough to do something like this."

Susan nodded.

By the end of the day, the whole of Hufflepuff House knew about Sally-Anne Perks. They had already lost Cedric Diggory and now Sally-Anne was admitted in the same ward as the Longbottoms due to Voldemort and his Death-Eaters. An attack on a Hufflepuff is an attack on the whole of Hufflepuff House, and it made them resolute in fighting You-know-who. They joined Potter's vigilante army and they fought Death-Eaters whenever they could, even when they ruled Hogwarts and Britain. The losses were heavy, no doubt about that. Diggory, Perks, McMillan and Tonks amongst those who were either killed or permanently incapacitated, and they were all avenged on the 2nd of May, 1998 when Voldemort fell to his own Killing Curse.

**3rd May, 1998**

Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot visited Sally-Anne (who was still comatose) in St. Mungos.

"We did it Sally. Voldemort is dead and his Death-Eaters will join him soon.", Hannah crooned.

"Yes, he won't be harming anyone anymore. ", Susan added.

Sally-Anne woke up from her coma and winked at them before crossing the Veil.

"NO! Please live !", they cried out and Augusta Longbottom who was visiting her son and daughter-in-law with her grandson did not have the heart to reproach them for being noisy in a hospital.

Sally-Anne was buried right next to her family (whose graves were moved) and Ernie McMillan along with the fallen fifty in the Battle of Hogwarts as plenty of Hufflepuffs requested McGonagall who accepted the request.


End file.
